07/21/2015

Toshiba has announced the resignation of the chief executive and seven other board members in the wake of an accounting scandal. An independent report found that the company had overstated earnings by $1.2 billion over seven years.

In a news conference, Chief Executive Hisao Tanaka said, "I apologize from my heart to all our stakeholders. To clarify management responsibility, I resign my posts as president and member of the board of directors as of today."

In the Japanese culture, it is traditional to bow deeply, particularly when admitting wrongdoing. Tanaka also said, "The responsibility lies in the management, including myself. As a response, I am stepping down from the post as the CEO and president."

The committee that issued the report found "systematic involvement, including by top management, with the goal of intentionally inflating the appearance of net profits." The committee also wrote, "Within Toshiba, there was a corporate culture in which one could not go against the wishes of superiors."

In a company statement, Toshiba promises changes as a result of the committee's findings, including disclosing the investigation report and correcting past financial statements.

07/17/2015

Reddit has been a spiral of drama in the past few weeks. Wired gives a useful chronology of the CEO changes and other issues. Ellen Pao was hired as interim CEO in November 2014 after Yishan Wong resigned. Pao had been in the news because she was a junior investment partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and sued the firm for gender discrimination. She lost the suit, which went to trial, in March 2015.

At Reddit, Pao was criticized for banning several subreddits (topical groups within Reddit). Although Reddit was created as a place for free speech, some of it is hateful. But users felts that Pao overstepped in closing down some sites. More than 200,000 people signed a change.org petition calling for Pao's resignation.

In her resignation post, Pao thanked her supporters but focused on the trolls and hateful comments she had received. She asks people to consider others' humanity and writes, "So why am I leaving? Ultimately, the board asked me to demonstrate higher user growth in the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining reddit’s core principles."

According to Wired,

Reddit is home to some of the most hateful content on the Internet, but at least some of it appears to be here to stay. Reddit [new] CEO Steve Huffman said during an AMA [ask me anything] on the site today that the company would ban communities that “incite harm or violence against an individual or group of people,” as well as any subreddit that “harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people.”

But he did call out a specific racist subreddit by name—a name so offensive that we won’t repeat it here—as an example of the kind of content that would remain, though likely under a new classification—an assurance that brought cheers from the subreddit’s members.

Wired also summarizes Pao's resignation:

Some have decried Ellen Pao’s resignation from Reddit as a step in the wrong direction for an industry where women leaders are still a distinct minority, but the site’s detractors say good riddance. Though Reddit was originally intended as a place where the ideals of free speech and the wisdom of the crowd would reign, often the crowd turned into a mob.

Discussion Starters:

People are so divided over Pao's resignation. What's your opinion? Was the decision best for the website? What are the consequences?

How, if at all, does her Kleiner lawsuit factor into your opinion? What if she had won the case?

05/13/2015

Facebook is taking a stand to increase wages. In a statement, COO Sheryl Sandberg described new standards for companies who want to do business with Facebook. The first paragraph is shown here:

Sandberg writes that this is "the right thing to do for our business and our community." She also mentions, "We’ve been working on these changes for some months and had originally planned to announce this last Monday." Monday was May 4; sadly, Sandberg's husband, SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, passed suddenly on May 1.

Are people just too sensitive, or did this Welsh bus company cross a line with its ad? The picture of a naked woman with a provocative line was created for a Cardiff, Wales, company promoting its cross-city service.

A representative for the Advertising Standards Agency reported 45 complaints and told Business Insider, "We've received complaints about this ad, but we understand that the advertiser will be taking it down within the next 24 hours and has removed its accompanying tweet in response to the concerns it's received. We'll continue to monitor the situation in case further action is needed."

On Twitter, New Adventure Travel promised to take down the ads:

In view of the reaction to our bus advertising today we wish to set out our position:

Firstly we have stated that our objectives have been to make catching the bus attractive to the younger generation. We therefore developed an internal advertising campaign featuring males and females to hold boards to promote the cost of our daily tickets.

The slogan of 'ride me all day for £3' whilst being a little tongue in cheek was in no way intended to cause offence to either men or women and, if the advert has done so then we apologise unreservedly. There has certainly been no intention to objectify either men or women.

Given the volume of negativity received we have decided to remove the pictures from the back of the buses within the next twenty four hours.

Discussion Starters:

What's your view? Is this just a catchy ad and people are too sensitive? Or is the ad potentially offensive?

What, if any, cultural differences are at play? How do you think this would be received in the United States?

How do we decide what "crosses a line"? What criteria do you use to form your opinion?

12/31/2014

Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather has apologized for an offensive ad produced for Kurl-on, an Indian mattress company. What could go wrong when portraying a 14-year-old Taliban shooting victim in a cartoon?

The company wanted to show that heroic figures "bounce back," but the ad doesn't quite work. The New York Times describes Malala Yousafzai, featured in the promotion:

"At the age of 11, Malala Yousafzai took on the Taliban by giving voice to her dreams. As turbaned fighters swept through her town in northwestern Pakistan in 2009, the tiny schoolgirl spoke out about her passion for education — she wanted to become a doctor, she said — and became a symbol of defiance against Taliban subjugation."

Two other ads in the series aren't much better. Steve Jobs is shown pushed out a door, and Gandhi is thrown from a moving train.

Before this one hit paid media outlets, online news organizations flagged the image. Although Kurl-on hasn't responded to inquiries, Ogilvy issued this statement:

"We deeply regret this incident and want to apologize to Malala Yousafzai and her family. We are investigating how our standards were compromised in this case and will take whatever corrective action is necessary."

Discussion Starters:

How do Kurl-on and Ogilvy share responsibility for the ad? How did this happen?

The ad was created in Ogilvy's Indian office and produced in a Chilean studio. How, if at all, do these facts affect your thinking about the ad?